Myofascial Pain Syndrome Support Group
Myofascial Pain Syndrome (or MPS) is a term used to describe one of the conditions characterized by chronic pain. It is associated with and caused by "trigger points" (TrPs), sensitive and painful areas between the muscle and fascia. The symptoms can range from referred pain through myofascial trigger points to specific pains in other areas of the body. It may be related...
That is what it feels like. I have taken a definite turn for the worse. It started a couple of weeks ago. Much much more achiness. I had my pain killer dosage upped, which was good, because it kept on getting worse. Thursday I did maybe two and a half hours of household work: cutting rug pads, putting on bed covers, in a cold house. Yesterday, two days later, I could hardly walk the pain in my butt and thighs was so bad. When I worked out trigger points in my butt, then my calf hurt.
This morning I was having a dream I was in pain, and then woke up and was in bad pain, a burning pain all up and down my left leg.
I am under a lot of what I would call silent stress, waiting to see the outcome of this important project I have worked on for years. That must have something to do with the pain, right? Do you guys have flares in response to important moments in your life?
This morning I was having a dream I was in pain, and then woke up and was in bad pain, a burning pain all up and down my left leg.
I am under a lot of what I would call silent stress, waiting to see the outcome of this important project I have worked on for years. That must have something to do with the pain, right? Do you guys have flares in response to important moments in your life?
It sounds like you've got a couple of things going on. One, that the 'silent' stress of waiting on that outcome. It's like one prolonged anxiety attack with lots of shallow breathing and holding all your muscles tense. That tension is in itself very painful and is more of your whole body being tense rather than just one bit of you. It's a bit like you're holding your breath waiting for the result, but holding your breath is not good for mps people - less oxygen going to the tissues = more pain.
This overall tension sets you up for any strain on your fascia from overdoing things...like that household work, which of course gives you bad spasms, more pain, etc etc. And because of the tension in your tissues you you can't tolerate what you did before...so whereas doing that housework might have been ok before right now it was probably too much - especially in a cold house.
For me, when I'm in that high anxiety state, I now cut back on what I'm doing and focus on resting (and being warm, I suppose) and take extra diazepam to help lower my anxiety to less dangerous levels, and to help with this breakthrough -but temporary- pain and flare up pain from overdoing it.
It sounds like it's a major response to the outcome, especially as you've done so much work for it, which makes it very personal and therefore even more anxiety-inducing. So the extra symptoms and extra pain may, hopefully, be a temporary response to the stress of waiting on the outcome rather than a complete deterioration. Hopefully.
All that burning pain sounds like some of the nerves are being bumped and squeezed from the tight fascia. I get that in flare ups now, too. It's kind of like the nerves are 'fizzing' with tension and create lots of heat.
Of course, that's all just my theory, just how I 'talk to myself' and explain it all to me. I don't know if that is all 'exactly' what's going on inside the body, just that it helps me make sense of what's going on. But whatever the reason you've got lots of breakthrough pain and taking extra pills can be an essential part of coping with it.
Hope it all goes well, have my fingers crossed for you!